Hugues Jacquemin, CEO of Northern Graphite needs to be fired
How long are shareholders supposed to endure a CEO that fails to deliver on anything of value and has fallen asleep at the wheel as the captain of a sinking ship...all the while, being generously overcompensated through salary, bonuses and multi year stock options. Flying around the world on the share holders dime, attending this conference in Europe, this conference in Africa, this conference in the US and on and on...who pays for those dinners, those bottles of wine, those first class accommodations? We do, the shareholders. What have we received in return other than value destruction? Nothing - absolutely nothing. Almost two years since Hugues arrived as CEO and he has failed miserably to act and deliver as a competent CEO who understands capital markets, messaging and execution. Zero deals closed, zero execution on anything. We are drowning in expired LOI's this, expired non-binding that...he has been a train wreck of a CEO, overseeing the largest wealth destruction in the shortest amount of time I have ever invested with. We have the very best assets in the world in the safest jurisdiction re the IRA, the best story to tell and all we do is sell off and trade at all time lows in tandem with other garbage graphite stocks that have nothing, no assets, no story...no future, but we trade with them because our CEO in unable to get this Ferrari out of first gear.
Our CEO is paying three separate IR entities a lot of money to do what? We are paying three people, groups, all to do the same job and none of them are delivering. Our messaging to the market is laughable. All we do is sell off consistently, trade at all time lows, and fail to connect in any meaningful way with the market. All the while, our CEO pats himself on the back for putting together royalty deals that only give away any future value, the only value we have right now. I would argue that it is only Hugues' inexperience and inability to manage our own capital markets and raise money effectively that has forced his hand into these royalty based value traps, but he congratulates himself none the less, a confirmation of in inexperience and capital market incompetence.
I pay you to paint my fence…but you don't. Weeks turn into months and months turn into a year. You still haven't painted my fence. You tell me that the weather has not been good, your tools haven't been adequate, you haven't been able to find reliable employees (it's a big fence) and on and on and on…you then convince me to pay you again to paint my fence. So I do, I pay you again to paint my fence taking into consideration all your reasons and excuses. Weeks then turn into months and months turn into yet another year...and still you haven't painted my fence.
Who is at fault? The painter who continues to not do the job he is paid to do...or the you the owner of the fence, that continues to pay the painter for not doing his job?
If we as shareholders, and our board, continue to back Hugues Jacquemin and pay him to paint our fence, we will always be the bag holders here, and it's on us. It's almost two years now and our fence still sits bare.... how many shares has our CEO accumulated personally through loans from the company and options alone over that time period…it's disgusting. I wish I had a job that would pay me to deliver on nothing, execute nothing, what a dream…and an employer that believed that was okay. Well, that’s Hugues Jacquemin’s cush situation right now. He doesn't close or execute anything but gets paid to fly around the world and rack up air miles on our dime…and our board allows him to do it, year over year.
Lets all wait for that late Sunday night news release, quietly announcing a brand new full allotment of multi year options at all time company lows. Another punch in the gut for shareholders. Pretty tough to beat that disaster of an investor call yesterday....but that might just do it.
Hugues Jacquemin is a failed CEO. Both he and his expense account need to go.
Enough is enough.